Man Utd Conquer Roma

Man Utd 7 - 1 Roma (Agg 8 - 3) Yes, you did read that correctly!

Well it just goes to prove that you should never listen to what I have to say when I try to predict results! There I was last week thinking that Roma would actually go to Old Trafford and cause a bit of a upset. And then Utd went and lost at Portsmouth at the weekend and I’m thinking Roma will never never a better chance of making through to the semi-final.

Well let that be a lesson to you! Utd were brilliant and quite frankly, simply humiliated Roma last night 7 - 1 in front of an euphoric Old Trafford crowd.

It didn’t take long for Man Utd to get into their stride either and for Roma to realise it was going to be a difficult night. Michael Carrick calmly curled in the opener and then Alan Smith (only now returning from that horrendous broken leg he suffered at Anfield in Feb 2006) fired home before Wayne Rooney added a third on a night of superb finishing and flowing moves.

Cristiano Ronaldo fired into the bottom corner and slid home a Ryan Giggs cross before Carrick smashed home a sixth.

Roma replied through Daniele De Rossi (if ever a goal was nothing more than a consolation, that was it!) before Patrice Evra’s low shot rounded off Man Utd’s amazing 8-3 aggregate win.

Sir Alex Ferguson even had time during the game to sign autographs for the fans. Can’t say I’ve ever seen that before. After the game Ferguson hailed the defeat of Roma as the greatest European night in the club’s history. Don’t think he’ll get too many arguments about that. Sir Alex said, “It was a fantastic performance by every one of our players. The speed of our play and our penetration was absolutely superb.

“That’s absolutely the best night of European football we’ve had here.

“We never expected to win 7-1 but the quality of our game was so high. The fact that three English teams [Utd, Chelsea and almost certainly Liverpool] are in the semis probably makes our league the best in Europe.

“Six or seven years ago Spanish football was the best. But on the evidence of this season Barcelona and Real Madrid are not as near to where they were in previous years, while the competitive nature and the quality of the English game has improved over the seasons.”

Following the ugly scenes last week in Rome, there were a few scuffles between fans outside the ground before kick-off. However, these were quickly forgotten once the game kicked off.

Actually Roma started the first ten minutes or so quite well and both sides showed their attacking intentions early. Roma’s Francesco Totti went closest with a fierce drive that whistled past Edwin van der Sar’s right-hand post.

But it wasn’t long before United took the lead and then control of the tie with three goals in eight first-half minutes.

The opener came from Carrick after 11 minutes when he picked up the ball from Ronaldo and bent the ball past a stationary Doni who had advanced a little too far off his line.

Only six minutes past and it become 2-0 when Argentine Gabriel Heinze and Giggs combined before the Welshman flighted a perfect pass into the path of Smith, who finished with absolute confidence. it was Smith’s first goal for United since November 2005 and must have been a very sweet moment for him after such a long absence from the goal.

Not to be outdone, Rooney then got in on the act, after timing his run superbly to slot home yet another low cross from Giggs.

At this point Roma were simply shell-shocked and tried to respond. They did almost pull a goal back when Philippe Mexes headed a David Pizarro free-kick just wide.

However Roma’s attempts to find any way back into the tie only succeeded in leaving themselves more vulnerable to United’s ultra quick counter attacking.

Then just before half-time it was Ronaldo who made it 4-0 with an excellent finish into the bottom corner. But the Roma defence can really only have themselves to blame. Theyy just stood there and basically invited Ronaldo to shot, and at the moment he does not need any invitation.

United were superb in the first half, and if Roma thought they were going to take their foot off the pedal and let-up a little in the second half, they were mistaken.

It didn’t take long for Ronaldo to slide home a low Giggs cross for number five on 49 minutes. Carrick then drove a piledriver to make it 6-0 after and hour and Roma must have been wishing they had stay at home. Although they did get that one goal consolation from a neat finish by De Rossi on the turn.

To say it was a little bit like an exhibition game by the time Evra’s low shot beat Doni would be somewhat of an understatement to say the least.

So, after this complete demolition of Roma, United await either AC Milan or Bayern Munich in the last four. Now last week I predicted it would be a Roma Bayern semi-final. So that obviously means that Utd will be playing AC Milan for the right to be in Athens on 23 May.

The Soccer Blogger